“I was a firm atheist, so I found Christianity genuinely funny and unserious,” remembered Marika from Ukraine.

‍

Just over a year ago, Marika was at her lowest point. Life as a first-year student in Lviv, Ukraine, felt empty; surrounded by parties, alcohol, and a dorm life that only made her feel more alone. It felt normal. After all, everyone lived like that. But deep down, something wasn’t right.

Then, during Halloween in Khmelnytskyi, her hometown about 3 hours away from her university, she saw a group of girls holding a sign on the streets: “Life without Jesus is scary.” She laughed and sent a picture to her friend Nazar, a Steiger team member she often argued with. 

‍

Marika unexpectedly ran into Nazar on the street a week later, while on her way to meet friends at a bar on a Friday night in Khmelnytskyi. But, instead of going to the bar, she ended up hanging out with Nazar. They talked for hours about faith, about “things I had never really thought about before,” shared Marika.

Soon after, Nazar introduced her to Vika from the Khmelnytskyi team, who became a mentor and walked with her through the loneliness she was carrying. Within weeks, everything started to change in Marika’s life. She stopped drinking and started attending the Bible study for the non-religious. “As soon as I walked in, I wanted to cry—not out of sadness, but because of the love I felt surrounding me,” Marika recalls.

From that point on, Marika couldn’t stay away. She began traveling back and forth from Lviv just to be part of what God was doing—Bible studies, outreaches, gatherings. She even skipped classes just to be there and be part of what Steiger was doing in Khmelnytskyi. She knew that this was where she belonged.

Then, on December 15, 2024, during only her second time at church, Marika made the decision to surrender her life to Jesus. “At that moment, everything made sense,” she remembered. “God had caught me when I was falling, and He hasn’t let me go since.”

Marika was baptized at Project 0 (one of the biggest Steiger events in Ukraine, a week-long training camp in the Carpathian mountains), and became an active member of the Steiger Khmelnytskyi city team. Today, she helps lead Bible studies for non-religious people in Lviv, reaching others who are exactly where she once was.

And all of it happened in just a few months. Once a firm atheist, raised in an atheist family, Marika is now sharing the Gospel on the streets.